Background:

Florists are artists; they understand the flower as a living sculpture, and with delicate care and expertise their craft sends passion and love to those they will seldom, if ever, meet. Floral 2000 has a talented staff, their craft is exquisite and fine art in living form. Michelle Howard has grown from a simple florist store to an event coordination and floral experience for her elite clientele. Her clients have impeccable tastes and their demands for excellence could drive any other business out of business, but that’s where Floral 2000 found their calling, meeting the needs of those in affluent social groups and relationships. Her clients would like to remain anonymous so lets just say they are the power movers and makers of Las Vegas’s elite.
When we received an arrangement from Floral 2000, I was literally shocked and in awe that an arrangement could be that beautiful, sculptural and delicate. After being speechless over the arrangement, I nearly fell over when I saw the logo, it was trapped in the late nineties and did not capture the art, sculpture and craft of the business.

My first reaction in seeing the logo was NOOOOOO! How could they do this? The colorful decay piece, reminded me of the Y2K bug that never came to be. A typographical nightmare and color palette in such chaos you had to look away before nausea set in. (I was very light-headed after seeing the logo, go figure).

Before:

The Challenge:

The challenge was convincing the potential client to update the material and change the business's name. Although the company had a solid reputation, the name was dated and bland. Considerations of changing the name was such a drastic measure as their marketing ad adaptation could damage their reputation or challenge existing clientele of the upgrade. The owner is a designer herself, and her entrepreneur duties of the company, didn’t give her the time to do what she wanted. Her tastes and vision are just as challenging as the clients she serves, so development of a logo and name change had to meet her expectations and her vision, so as not to have fatal consequences to the business. Although Floral 2000 is primarily a florist, they have other divisions in event decoration, management and arrangements as well as aspirations of new product line. The new identity must set the pace for all these attributes and set the standard for the future projects.

Solution:

The owner had a vision of butterflies, not dancing in her head mind you, but as a symbol of growth, beauty and evolution. She was drawn towards hand-lettering and script swirls. The logo is comprised of multiple layers representing the multi-facets of the business. The first layer, a crest, is an illustration of French floral/ironwork pattern pattern circa 1900’s. The second layer is the heart shaped swirls doubling as wings to the third layer. The third layer is the body of the butterfly. The fonts selected were modified to have a more hand-drawn crafted elegance. The color palette was inspired by chocolate and primary floral colors of love, pink and red. Each layer can be playfully incorporated as elements in the packaging and marketing. The client was so overwhelmed by the identity she immediately began plans in proceeding to incorporate the new identity onto her product lines ahead of schedule. When the clients gave an overwhelming response to the new identity, the concern of the possibilities of losing clientele was diminished. The nausea of the first logo subsided and now we could get to work on all the fun, inspiring applications. Not to mention my wife, mother & mother-in-law are set for life in receiving the most beautiful arrangements ever. (My client is now saving my butt, go figure.)

After:

Alina's Feedback:

I don't know what to say! The success of Dan's redesign speaks for itself. The only way we might have guessed that the original logo had something to do with a florist is the word "Floral." Otherwise we have no clue due to the font, colors and letter placement combined with no floral imagery. My first thought was circus because of the bright colors, and "juggling" rings and letters. Dan's choice of font, embellishments and colors give us a much clearer and more accurate assessment of the owner's business. Dan explained it all so well, that I'll just let you enjoy the beautiful transformation.